An unprecedented tribal protest in the province of Deir ez-Zor is putting the Kurdish forces administering northeastern Syria to the test. After 11 days of clashes with tribal fighters in this predominantly Arab region, which killed at least 90 people, the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Wednesday, September 6, that they had regained control of the few villages that had fallen into the hands of the protesters. On Thursday evening, the head of the FDS, Mazloum Abdi, pledged to negotiate an amnesty for the rebels and to “find solutions to the problems of Deir ez-Zor through dialogue, with peace, stability and development as the ultimate goal.”
The Kurdish forces’ military victory is far from the end of the conflict. Most of Deir ez-Zor’s tribes have not taken up arms against the SDF, but they join the belligerents in their grievances against the undivided domination exercised by Kurdish forces since they defeated the Islamic State (IS) organization there in 2019, with the support of the international coalition. Although fighters and local representatives are integrated into the FDS and civil administration, residents condemn their authoritarian management, and their stranglehold on this hydrocarbon-rich region’s resources.
A godsend for Damascus
“The FDS have had to deal with the worst-case scenario of destabilization, but they have crushed it and strengthened their control. However, they no longer have any support after the demobilization of 3,000 frustrated tribal fighters. This instability will encourage more external instrumentalization,” said an expert who requested anonymity. The contestation is a godsend for the Damascus regime, which, if it cooperates with the FDS, intends to reassert its sovereignty in the face of Kurdish autonomist schemes and drive out American troops. It is also a boon for Turkey, which wants to dislodge these forces linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), its bête noire, from its border, as well as for the IS, which is biding its time by recomposing its sleeper cells.
This conflict “is indicative of the bad policy implemented by the FDS and the Americans’ miscalculations,” said Omar Abu Layla, director of the Deir Ezzor 24 analysis center. The province’s residents blame the Americans, whose strategy boils down to the fight against terrorism, for having delegated local governance to Kurdish forces to the detriment of setting up an autonomous, representative authority. They’re accusing the SDF of co-opting corrupt warlords, such as the leader of the Deir ez-Zor military council, Ahmad Al-Khabil. The disavowal and arrest, on August 27, of this local leader, nicknamed “Abu Khawla,” by the FDS was the trigger for the protest.